Another analytics firm, Data.ai, likewise told Reuters that its data was not showing any meaningful change to usage of the platform in Canada in August. Both Meta and Alphabet's Google have said the law is unworkable for their businesses. Even before Meta pulled the plug on news links in Canada, Facebook referrals to a sampling of popular news sites in Canada were already down about 35% year-over-year in July and about 74% since 2020, according to Similarweb. Meta's other big social platform Instagram is less of a presence in the news environment as it does not enable links within individual user posts. Canada's new Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge has spoken to both Facebook and Google since taking office after a cabinet shuffle at the end of July, her office told Reuters.

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Persons: Dado Ruvic, Data.ai, Similarweb, Meta, Pascale St, Onge, Katie Paul, Steve Scherer, Ismail Shakil, Kenneth Li, Nick Zieminski Organizations: Facebook, REUTERS, Meta, Similarweb, Reuters, Graphics, Google, Reuters Institute, Pew Research Center, Thomson Locations: Canada, United States, New York, Ottawa